I love this internet cafe!

Right now I am at this really cool internet cafe - for about 410 yen (about $4) I get an hour of internet use, all the drinks (non-alcoholic of course) that I want, access to a massive collection of manga - you can also borrow video games, etc., etc. There are showers, bathrooms, sofas etc. In my own booth I have a huge leather desk chair, a computer, telephone, slippers, a foot rest, desk light - this is amazing. I am drinking a cappucino right now. This morning we had the placement test for Japanese - it was hard! I think I should be able to get into the class I need though. Also, I have heard that it is pretty easy to get moved to the next class if you think you should be. I am having a great time - the food is really good, and cheap too. The most I have spent on a meal so far was 1000 yen (less than $10), and that was ordering the most expensive thing on the menu! I tried the cafeteria at the school today, also pretty good, and very cheap - for 288 yen (about $2.50) I got miso soup, a grilled fish, a bowl of rice, and green tea. So far I have only tried cooking for myself once. I bought what I thought was an instant mix for miso soup, but it turned out to be only the seaweed and onions and stuff that you ADD to miso soup. I also made chicken with a pepper sauce of some kind, but I had scraped out all the pepper at the bottom of the packet, which I don`t think you were supposed to do - because it was REALLY peppery. On the other hand the salad dressing that I found is really good. Some sort of avocado dressing I think. Trying to cook in a country where you can`t read labels isn`t exactly the easiest thing to do, I have found. There are a lot of international student here - apparently this year there are actually a lot more Americans than usual - I think there are 19 Americans, someone said, when normally there are about 10. For the Europeans, there are four from Sweden I think, 2 from Germany, 2 from France (both named Nicholas), and I think there was one girl from somewhere else, I can`t remember where right now. This morning I walked to school for the test - it took about 45 minutes (with a stop at the 7-11 for this amazing hot lemon drink that I found in Tokyo - kind of like hot lemonade, but without the sourness). The walk wasn`t so bad except for the rain - I am going to try and find rainboots once I get out of here. And probably go to the 100 yen store again - everybody has been making fun of me becuase I buy so much stuff from there - the first day I was here a whole group of us went down there, and I bought the most out of the entire group - then the next day, we did foreigner`s registration, set up bank accounts, etc. with the help of a group called Group Mori, and another one called @Home. When they offered different options of placed they could take us, I was the only one who needed to go the 100 yen store again! That is where it began. My addiction has become widespread knowledge nowAnd I am going again today...I met my research advisor briefly when we had our JYPE orientation, but my first meeting with him is on Wednesday - until then, I don`t actually have anything I have to do tomorrow - I don`t have any classes scheduled, so I am free to explore Sendai! Or fill out more forms that need to get done...Choices...